Chickens Every Day
Dedicated to helping backyard chicken owners keep the happiest and healthiest flocks we can.
Chickens Every Day
Creative Ways to Keep Chickens Happy and Healthy. Profiling the Cubalaya
What if your backyard could help save a rare chicken breed from extinction? Join us on Chickens Every Day as we uncover the captivating world of the Cubalaya chicken, a stunning breed that combines the best of ornamental beauty and practical utility. With its roots tracing back to Cuba, this triple-purpose bird offers eggs, meat, and show-stopping charm, albeit with a leisurely maturation period. We'll highlight the importance of conservation efforts for this critically listed breed and guide you on finding these extraordinary birds to enrich your flock.
Beyond breeding, nurturing your chickens with healthy treats is crucial for their well-being. We promise to transform your understanding of poultry nutrition with expert tips from Jeff Maddox, exploring delectable yet affordable treat recipes like a yogurt-infused feed mix your chickens will adore. Discover the do's and don'ts of chicken snacks as we recommend nutritious options, such as black fly larvae and sprouted peas, while steering clear of harmful indulgences like cakes and cookies. Learn creative methods to keep your chickens cool and hydrated during those scorching summer days with refreshing watermelon and frozen fruit delights. Tune in to ensure your feathery companions are happy, healthy, and ready to flourish.
Are we ready, pawpaw? Hello friends and welcome to Chickens. Every Day, a podcast with you, the backyard chicken enthusiast, and mine. Your host is my Pawpaw, Gary, Gary Vallery of CENLA Backyard Chickens. Here we have fun while sharing ideas and learning how to care for our foul-feathered friends. Check out our videos at Cenla that's C-E-N-L-A Backyard Chickens on YouTube, tiktok and Facebook. So, without further ado, let's start today's show.
Gary Vallery :Hello friends, and welcome to the podcast. Today we've got a couple of things to talk about. We're going to do a breed profile and I have found the Cubalaya chicken that we're going to talk about today, and if this is a chicken that you've never heard of, join the club, because I hadn't heard of them either until I found them on the conservancy livestock conservancy website, and they're a pretty cool breed. So we're going to get into that. And we're also going to talk about treats. Everybody loves to give our chickens treats and if you're, you know, one of these addicted backyard chicken keepers like I am. We like to give our chickens treats and we like to come up with different things, and I'm going to end the treat part with telling you about a amazing treat that you can give your birds all the time and it's not going to do anything detrimental to them, not going to be over sugar, over carb, anything like that, but really, if you, if you think about it, anything not part of a chicken's regular diet can fall under the category of treats, and then you can break that into two varieties of treats if you want healthy and not so healthy treats. In other words, you should never feed your flock. An unhealthy treat like cakes and cookies and overly seasoned items. Unhealthy treat like cakes and cookies and overly seasoned items, old or doughy items. That's just lots of carbs, it's going to make them fat. And unhealthy Things from the kitchen that you know are unhealthy for you or your kids. You really don't want to feed it to your chickens either. Otherwise, table scraps are great to give them, but don't give them anything that's spoiled or has mold or anything like that. Again, if you wouldn't feed it to you or your children, you don't want to feed it to your chicken. But there's tons of things that we can give our birds to eat as treats, but just remember, we want to keep that down to 10% of their total diet a day. So treats should really be given toward the evening time, when they've had plenty of time to scratch around outside, if you free range, or to eat plenty of their good chicken food that you have for them, and that's when we keep the healthy treats and we start with that. Black fly, larvae or mealworms are a type of healthy treat. Scratch grain, limited cracked corn and I say limited cracked corn because corn does have a lot of carbs Frouted peas and beans are a great treat. Fruit scraps healthy fruit scraps are a great treat. Healthy garden greens, vegetables. You can make your own flock cake. I have a video at Send a Lot of Backyard Chickens on YouTube that you can see how to make a flock cake. They're really great for the chickens. A lot of fun to do.
Gary Vallery :Not as healthy treats, you know, kind of like an apple on a stick, but that's always to do. I have an apple core which takes the center part out of the apples, which is the seeds, because apple seeds do have a little bit of arsenic in them. Or when the chickens digest them, that's kind of. The outcome is a little bit of arsenic, not really enough that it's going to kill your chickens or something like that. But over time give them a lot of apples, it could make a difference. So people like me you know I just I like to do that but you can hang an apple on a little thin stick or you can hang it by a little chain or something and let them go after it. It's really fun to watch.
Gary Vallery :I like to give my chickens watermelon, especially in the summer Louisiana summers right now we're having 100 plus degree days it is just murder. Most of the chickens are just hanging out under shade trees and under the coops because they don't want to get out in the heat of the day, so they do most of their action in the morning and the evenings. But I'll give them watermelon and cantaloupes and cucumbers. I will also slice up grapes and blueberries and strawberries and put them in ice trays full of water, freeze it and then give that to them and it is a really good helps hydrate them, help cool their bodies down and they get that treat as well. But remember, don't overdo the sugar and things like that that you want to consider when you think about your birds.
Gary Vallery :But again, if you listen to much of my podcast or seen my videos, you know that I'm a real big fan of jeff maddox. Jeff owns a portrayal company or he's president of it. They are poultry nutrition specialists. I've talked with people over there before. They're really great about helping you out and Jeff was on a podcast and I was listening to him and he talked about a very simple treat that's really, really great for your chickens.
Gary Vallery :They go after it, they love it and it's inexpensive to do and you start off with chicken feed. You know whatever good, healthy feed, whether it's pellets or mash or crumbles that you feed your chickens. That's what you want to start with for the treat. The secret here is is you get it wet and I mean good and wet Now, not runny wet. You know you don't want to overdo it they still need to be able to pick it up with their beaks. But get it good and wet, mix the water in there, stir it up and then add to that some plain Greek yogurt. No flavor additives, nothing like that. Plain Greek yogurt. Generally I'll put two or three scoops of that whenever I've had a couple of cups of my chicken feed that I mix with water, two or three scoops of a tablespoon and I'll mix the Greek yogurt in it, bring it out there to them and that good wet texture that's in there. They love it. I mean they literally go nuts over this stuff and they will eat every bit.
Gary Vallery :And chickens love to fill up right before bedtime and this is one of the best things you can fill them up with. It's got great probiotic features to it. It takes good gut health and the way gut health works with a chicken it's not that you're adding particular bacteria so much as you are, as you're making less room for the bad bacteria to be able to grow. So when you have more of the good stuff, then you have less room for the bad bacteria to be able to grow. So when you have more of the good stuff, then you have less room for the bad stuff to grow. And that's what we do with apple cider vinegar, that's what we do with the yogurt. Different things like that that you can do for the good gut health of your chickens. But I have tried this several times and my girls really like to go for it and I still do the other treats. You know, know, don't get me wrong I have a lot of fun watching them go after apples and or pick ice cubes apart to get the bits and pieces of the fruit. But but you, you have to do those you know with with those little bit of hold yourself back because you don't want to overdo it with with your chickens. But this right here, feeding them their regular feed with water, especially in the summer, whenever hydration is so important, and with these hot days, and then adding that Greek yogurt, plain Greek yogurt, no additives to it, no flavors, your chickens are really, really going to thank you for it. Give it a try and let me know what your chickens had to say about it. I think you'll be very happy.
Gary Vallery :So we're going to talk about the Cubali chicken, and that is spelled C-U-B-A-L-A-Y-A. They originate in Cuba, which is where they get their name from, and they're a cross between a Malay and a Sumatra chicken, which were imported from the Philippines. If you've ever heard of a dual-purpose breed and we've all heard of them well, cubalayas are a triple-purpose breed, or at least that's what they're considered, because they're considered good for meat, eggs and they sport chicken. However, in the United States they're really looked at more as a ornamental breed. They're a beautiful chicken. They have a peak home and a unique, long, lustrous lobster tail that curves downward and it resembles a lobster claw.
Gary Vallery :Right now I'm looking at a picture of a rooster and a hen. The rooster's colorings kind of remind you of a brown leghorn, but their head and their neck is really really full and they stand very tall with that peak on. And then, on this particular rooster, the tail just keeps following the contour of the back and then just sweeps down its very long tail and it does. It looks like a big lobster claw that's laying there on the ground. They're just a gorgeous looking bird the female looking at her at the end. She's much more subdued in color. She has a dark red neck and more of a beige type on her body and her wings. The tail does the same thing, but it's not as long as the rooster, where the rooster's tail is flowing and dragging on the ground. The hen's is not on the ground. She is still a really good-looking bird. They're just really really pretty birds all the way around both of them. When you get a chance, look them up and you'll see what I'm talking about. Around both of them. When you get a chance, look them up and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Gary Vallery :They were brought over here to the US and accepted into the APA Standard American Poultry Association Standard of Perfection in 1939. They were also exhibited at the International Poultry Show in Cleveland, ohio that very same year. They come in a variety of colors. The colors that I show you are usually the more standard colors, but the APA only recognizes the white black and the black breasted red, which is what I talked to you about a while ago.
Gary Vallery :They're not a huge chicken, they're a medium-sized bird. The roosters weigh in somewhere around six pounds and the hens about four. They mature slowly okay, which is one of the reasons they're not as popular as what they once were here in the US. They can actually take up to three years to reach adulthood, but they're capable of reproducing six to seven months. Cubalias are very majestic looking and they seem to know it just by the way they carry themselves. I mentioned to you earlier how that rooster was just standing very tall and proud, just the way he was holding himself up. That is really really pretty looking to see that. They're said to have a very good quality meat, producing around 125 to 175 small to medium roundish tinted eggs a year. They love to forage for insects. They do well in roomy backyards and are best suited to more of our warmer clients. The hens tend to be a little on the broody side and are considered to be good moms, so if you're looking for a broody hen, that's good.
Gary Vallery :The trait most favored in a Cuban Malaya and I thought this was really interesting is their tameness with people. Chicks will often eat out of a human's hand without ever having previously been in contact with a human. The downside to this, they say, is they don't really fear predators the way that they should, and it's a well-known problem with this particular breed, but the cool part about the fact that they just want to be around people and they don't have a natural fear of them. So if you're looking for a lap chicken, this could definitely probably fit your bill. According to the Livestock Conservancy, a distinctive trait for the cubalias is a lack of spurs, and this really got me interested, especially if I was thinking about having another rooster out here, which would be a desirable trait, you know, if you have a concern about someone getting attacked or you have young children hanging around. However, when I started doing digging deeper research in the breed, I found that my pit chicken said that they have spurs and they could have multiple spurs. Oklahoma State University, however, says that they do not. I found a few other websites stating that they can't have anywhere from little, very little spurs to none, so it's kind of looked like the spur thing is up and down depending on the particular strain that you have. I would really like to get one of these roosters that did not have a spur. I just think that would be really cool, because I do have young grandchildren.
Gary Vallery :They come in standard and bantam sizes, which is good if you have a small setup and you like Bantam. Unfortunately for these birds, they're currently listed at critical on the Livestock Conservancy list. So, if you're able to, this is a breed that we need to do something about. We need to do some help when we can. When searching where to purchase these chicks, I found varieties at Cackle, hatchery Valley, hatchery Chickens for Backyards, strongbirds. They all said that they carry them. However, if when you click on them, most of them were currently out of stock. So you might want to see if you can look on Facebook or the internet and see if you can find a breeder out there. There's not a lot of them, but there are some out there and, considering the fact that they're on the critical list, I'm sure if you find a breeder, they'll be happy to try to be helpful with you.
Gary Vallery :In conclusion, about this beautiful animal, the cuba lie is beautiful and exotic, with many positive qualities that make it a great choice for chicken keepers, and you ought to think about considering to add this special breed to your flock. I know I'm going to. Earlier today I was looking and looking and looking and I could not find anybody that currently had any, but I'm not going to quit. I'm going to actually get another batch of chicks for the fall, and I'm going to see if I can add some cubelias in that. I would love to get a rooster and a hen as well to do this. I just think that would be really cool, especially with their disposition that they have, and then the fact that they have little to no spurs would be a big plus.
Gary Vallery :So, anyway, I hope you guys have enjoyed this episode of Chickens Every Day. Remember, you can always find my videos at Send Live Backyard Chickens Facebook, youtube, tiktok You'll find me on there. Through there you can also get in contact with me. If you have ideas for shows or people that you'd like to see me, do it, listen to me, do an interview with or questions comments, as long as they're nice. We'll always be nice and respectful with one another on this podcast. So in the meantime, have a great summer. We'll talk with you guys again soon. Thanks a lot, bye-bye.
Sylvie:That's all we have time for today. I really hope you enjoyed listening to the podcast. Be sure to watch our videos. So, on behalf of my pup, gary, and me, sylvie, thanks for listening.
